Re: Will Knebworth 1976 ever see an official release?Reply #1 - Feb 14th, 2018 at 4:40pm

Doubt it. The Stones didnt film the show as far as I'm aware (and if they did, their footage isnt whats circulating).

The BBC did film it though, for a news report that night which only broadcast a couple of minutes from the gig. The circulating footage is taken from their raw news footage - although at about 50-55 minutes its barely a little more than a third of the show.

Funny story on how it circulated. About 22-23 years ago I was trading tapes and videos with a guy in England and I saw on his list that he had a pro shot of Knebworth, so a week or two later I got a pristine 1st generation copy of almost one hour of the gig in amazing quality.

As it turned out he worked for the BBC, and their filing system back in that pre-digital age was pretty hopeless and poorly monitored. So he'd pay a little visit to their vaults every so often, find the masters of a few Stones 'gems', take them home, copy them and leave them back before anyone noticed. I got quite a few early 70s Old Grey Whistle Test interviews and footage from him around that time plus some other stuff which hadnt been circulating in decent quality, if at all.

The Paris '76 shows are a different matter though. At least three of the four shows were filmed by Freddy Hauser for the 'Les Stones aux Abattoirs' TV broadcasts and about 3 hours of footage of those gigs (including the complete performance of the third night - 6th June) have been in circulation for many years. Theres been talk they'll get a release eventually. Its not their finest moment, but theyre much better shows than what 'Love You Live' would suggest.